RADIO: I.T.M.A. (It’s That Man Again)

by Tony Lang (reprinted from LAUGH MAGAZINE #19, 1999)

In 1938 the top brass of the BBC decided that they should have a regular weekly comedy show, along the lines of the George Burns and Gracie Allen Show which was very popu­lar in the United States. It was to star Tommy Handley, a well-known Liverpudlian comedian whose first broadcast was a relay from the London Coliseum of the Royal Command Performance of December 1923.

Several scripts were prepared but, not being very keen on any of them, Handley asked a friend to see if he could come up with something. The friend was Ted Kavanagh, and the something was ITMA, soon to become the most popular ra­dio series of the 1940s.

Tommy and Ted, together with producer Francis Worsley, retired to the Langham Hotel in Portland Place, opposite Broadcasting House. Here they devised the format over pints of beer, amid a packed conference of clergymen.

They decided to name the show after a topical catchphrase associated with a short moustached Nazi who seemed to be causing quite a stir internationally. Whenever Hitler made some new territorial claim, the newspaper headlines would proclaim ‘It’s That Man Again’. That looked fined in print, but was a bit of a mouthful to repeat over the microphone. Something snappier was called for, and once again inspiration was to be found in contemporary issues. At the beginning of the war, everyone seemed initial-crazy. People spoke of the R.A.F., the A.R.P., E.N.S.A. and many others, so the programme title was shortened to ITMA.

A trial series of four shows began fortnightly from 12th July 1939. The setting was a pirate commercial radio ship, from which Tommy sent out his choice of programmes. He was assisted by Cecilia Eddy as his secretary Cilly and Eric Egan as a mad Russian inventor. These early editions broadcast from London were modelled on the ground-breaking Band Waggon, starring Arthur Askey and Richard Murdoch. However they weren’t considered a success, and ITMA seemed destined to end there.

Ironically, the aforementioned Mr. Hitler deemed otherwise. The outbreak of war shook up the BBC schedules and Handley and Co. returned on 19th September for a weekly series of 21 episodes. These were transmitted from Bristol, where the BBC Variety Department had taken up residence, hoping to avoid the heavy bombing raids directed at London.

A pirate radio ship was not considered to be a suitable subject during wartime, so a new scenario was sought. In the early days of the war, new Government Ministries sprang up like mushrooms, almost overnight. It was decided that for the second series Tommy Handley should be Minister of Aggra­vation and Mysteries at the Office of Twerps. A brand new supporting cast was enlisted, amongst them Vera Lennox as secretary Dotty and Maurice Denham as Mrs. Tickle the office char and Vodkin the Russian inventor. In the second episode, Jack Train created Funf, the elusive German spy, whose catchphrase ‘This is Funf speaking’ was to work its way into many private telephone conversations. It all helped to make the German propaganda machine seem little more than a wireless joke.

One of the regular features was Radio Fakenburg, a send up of Radio Luxembourg which had ceased broadcasting for the duration.

Increased popularity led to a couple of stage shows which briefly toured the country. Unfortunately they lacked the im­pact of the radio shows and folded when the blitz destroyed many of the theatres.

Meanwhile Bristol had also suffered from German bombing, so the BBC Variety Department was once again on the move, this time to Bangor in North Wales. With escalating bad news for the Allies abroad, take-offs of Government De­partments would no longer be acceptable. Instead, it was felt that ITMA should provide an escape for a war-weary public.

The series was renamed It’s That Sand Againand set in a seedy seaside resort called Foaming at the Mouth, with Tommy as the town’s Mayor. Vera Lennox and Maurice Denham had departed, and in their place came Sydney Keith, Horace Percival, Dorothy Summers and Fred Yule. Several soon-to-become-famous characters were launched: Lefty and Sam, the gangsters (Train and Keith), Deepend Dan, the diver (Percival) (based on a man Handley once saw on the New Brighton pier collecting money from the ferry passengers), Claude and Cecil, the over polite handymen (Train and Percival) and Ali Oop (Percival), a Middle Eastern vendor of saucy postcards and other dubious merchandise.

The popular seaside setting was continued in the fourth season, which reverted to the original name. The team were joined by Dino Galvani, as Handley’s Italian secretary Signor So-So, and Clarence Wright as the commercial traveller who never made a sale but didn’t seem to care. In October, Dorothy Summers introduced the famous office char, Mrs. Mopp, sent by the ‘Labour’ to dust the Mayor’s dado with much clattering of bucket and brush. She later progressed to her own series, The Private Life Of Mrs Moppin 1946.

In April the cast were honoured to be invited to perform a special show at Windsor Castle to celebrate the then Princess Elizabeth’s 16th birthday. This was the first such event for a BBC programme. A recording was made, which has never been broadcast, but still exists in BBC Sound Archives.

Another high point was the release of a film version of ITMA, starring Tommy Handley as Mayor of Foaming at the Mouth. This was to prove quite successful, but again, like the stage show the visual characters lacked the appeal of their radio counterparts. Ted Kavanagh’s creations worked best in the mind of the listener.

By the time they had returned to the airwaves in Septem­ber 1942, Foaming at the Mouth was graced with a war factory. It was never made clear what, if anything, it was producing — even the workers didn’t seem to know. The famous Colonel Humphrey Chinstrap made his first appearance, and rapidly became one of the most popular characters. The Colonel was a dipsomaniac army officer who turned almost any innocent remark into the offer of a drink with his catchphrase ‘I don’t mind if I do’. The following season saw the war factory trans­formed into a spa, a holiday camp and a hotel.

By October 1943, the worst of the air raids were thought to be over, so the BBC Variety Department packed up and made its way back to London. The seventh series, with Tommy now squire of Much Fiddling, was recorded without Jack Train (who was seriously ill), but with the addition of young Jean Capra, discovered when auditions were held for the first time. A special edition was broadcast early the following year from the Navy base at Scapa Flow. Not to be outdone, this was followed by episodes allocated to the Royal Air Force (held at the Criterion Theatre in London) and the Army (from a garrison theatre ‘somewhere in England’).

Jack Train returned in September, and with a new voice named Mark Time, an elderly, depraved gentleman who an­swered all questions with ‘I’ll ‘ave to ask me Dad’. Newcomer Diana Morrison played Miss Hotchkiss, Tommy’s domineer­ing secretary, named after a make of machine gun. The end of the war was celebrated by the VE edition on 10th May 1945.

A decision was made that the first post-war series should have a completely new look, and most of the familiar charac­ters were dropped. Dorothy Summers, Sydney Keith and Dino Galvani departed, while Carleton Hobbs (later to become ra­dio’s Sherlock Holmes), Hugh Morton, Mary O’Farrell, Michele de Lys and singer Lind Joyce joined the company.

As a reward for his war work, Tommy was appointed Governor of a newly discovered South Sea island called Tomtopia. During the month-long sea cruise to the island, Tommy encountered Curly Kale (Carleton Hobbs), the chef who hated food but loved terrible puns, George Gorge (Fred Yule), a glutton who could eat any quantity of ‘lovely grub’ and Sam Fairfechan (Hugh Morton), the contradictory Welsh­man. Accompanying them on the journey was Colonel Chinstrap, who made straight for the Jungle Arms on arrival at their destination.

The local population included Bigga Banga (Fred Yule), the native chief who spoke only Utopi language, his daughter and translator Banjeleo (Lind Joyce), Wamba M’Boojah (Hugh Morton), another Tomtopian native whose Oxbridge accent was the result of a spell as announcer with the BBC’s Over­seas Service, and Major Munday (Carleton Hobbs), an ex-British army officer who had lived in isolation since the Boer war and now believed England was exactly as it had been in the nineteenth century.

On 19th September 1946, back from a few months off the air, Mrs. Handley’s boy was rather closer to home, resting at Castle Weehouse in Scotland. Here he met Tattie Mackintosh (Molly Weir), Dan Dungeon the castle guide and fellow Liv­erpudlian Frisby Dyke (both Deryck Guyler). Following a misdirected attempt to visit the moon in a rocket, he found himself back in Tomtopia for the rest of the series.

A year later Tommy was appointed the Government’s ad­viser on industrial and scientific affairs. The position led to an investigation into the radio industry and organisation of a fuel saving campaign. Hattie Jacques debuted as Sophie Tuckshop, the greedy schoolgirl whose prandial excesses were invari­ably followed by a giggle and ‘but I’m all right now’.

The twelfth, and final, series began on 23rd September 1948. Down on his luck, Tommy was now a permanent resi­dent at Henry Hall (the tramps’ guesthouse), run by Miss Hotchkiss. For the milestone 300th episode of 28th October, the setting was Madame Tussaud’s Waxworks in London. Here, passing through a door marked ‘The Hall of ITMA’s Past’, Tommy was reunited with many favourite characters from Foaming at the Mouth and Tomtopia, with Dino Galvani, Horace Percival, Clarence Wright, Lind Joyce and Dorothy Summers all making guest appearances.

The last ITMA went out on 6th January 1949. Tommy Handley died suddenly of a cerebral haemorrhage three days later. The news was conveyed to a stunned public immedi­ately after the usual repeat broadcast. Handley had been suffering from high blood pressure for some time, and his death seems a direct consequence of his dedication to work.

Thousands of mourners and sightseers lined the six mile route from a private chapel in Westbourne Grove to the Golders Green Crematorium, where the scene looked more like the Palladium on the night of a Royal Variety Performance than a funeral. Two memorial services were held — one at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and the other at Liverpool Cathedral.

The Radio Times shows that there was an edition of ITMA scheduled for 13th January, but this was to be replaced by a special tribute programme. Later, in the Light Programme magazine show Mirror of the Month, sound effects boys Brian Begg and Johnny Ammonds reminisced and demonstrated some of the ITMA effects. The item ended with the suggestion ‘Shall we close the door for the last time?’. They did, and this was followed by a five second pause. One radio critic thought this the most poignant tribute of them all.

Many editions of ITMA were recorded, but only a small percentage have survived. Listening to them now, they seem very dated, and it is often difficult to see why the show was so immensely popular, sometimes with forty percent of the Brit­ish population tuning in. But it took people’s minds off the horrors of war and produced a sort of nationwide family spirit. This was helped by the liberal use of catchphrases, many of which passed into the language. Characters would knock at the famous imaginary door, enter, exchange funny lines with Tommy at machine gun speed, deliver their unvarying closing remark and exit to enormous applause — almost like a factory production line.

After Handley’s death, the BBC wisely decided to let the show die with him. The only surviving character was Jack Train’s Colonel Chinstrap. In 1950 The Colonel appeared in a long forgotten series called The Great Gilhooly. A documen­tary about his life was broadcast on 1st January 1954 and he appeared in two episodes of a series which was to achieve the same popularity in the 1950s (and beyond) that ITMA had enjoyed a decade before … The Goon Show.

EPISODE GUIDE

All shows produced by Francis Worsley (except 8/15 – 8/33, produced by Ronnie Walden)
Scripts by Ted Kavanagh.

Series 10: 19 September 1946 to 12 June 1947 (39 editions)
Cast: Tommy Handley, Jack Train, Hugh Morton (1-5, 7-39), Fred Yule, Lind Joyce, Deryck Guyler, Diana Morrison (1-6, 19-39), Tony Francis (1-9), Molly Weir, Joan Harben (7-39)Tommy starts off at Castle Weehouse in Scotland, tries to visit the moon in a rocket but ends up back in Tomtopia where he stays for the rest of the series.The following episodes are known to exist:
10/9 New Governor and radio programme
10/15 Boxing Day broadcast, pantomime and circus
10/19 Miss Hotchkiss arrives in Tomtopia

Related Series

The Private Life Of Mrs Mopp25 November to 30 December 1946 (6 x l5 mins)
A series of interludes in the life of radio’s most famous charwoman
Script by Ted Kavanagh, produced by Jacques Brown

The Great Gilhooly2 October to 25 December 1950 (13 x 30 mins)
This series included Colonel Chinstrap as a regular character.
Cast: Noel Purcell, Jack Train, Joe Linnane, Hugh Morton, Jean Capra, John Bushelle (1-6), Tony Arpino (1 and 2), John Glyn-Jones (6 to 13), Barbera Mullen (8 to 13), The Four Ramblers
Produced by Gordon Crier (1 to 9), Produced by John Watt (10 to 13)
Script by Ted Kavanagh

Tribute Broadcasts

Melodies and Memories of ITMA Home Thursday 8-30pm January 13 1949 (30 min)

Tommy Handley Light Monday 10-20pm January 9 1950 (40 min)

Memories of I.T.M.A. Home Monday 8-00pm January 1 1951 (45 min)narrated by John Snagge

The Tommy Handley Story Home Friday 9-15pm December 25 1959 (60 min)hosted by Deryck Guyler

RECORDINGS

Can I Do Yer Now, Sir?/London Will Be The SameHMV 78rpm disc BD-10651943 recordings by Dorothy Summers

Memories of ITMAOriole 5x78rpm disc set and later LP MG 20032 (1951)
The records had introductions by John Snagge.1. two extracts from Foaming At The Mouth.2. Much Fid­dling/The Navy.3. The Army/The RAF.4. Tomtopia/Home Again.5. A Royal Occasion/The 300th Show.* BBC Home Service aired a 45 minute special titled Memories of ITMA on January 1 1951 (with narration by John Snagge). Whether the Oriole 78rpm set is taken from this broadcast, or the BBC played the Oriole set is unclear.

Vintage VarietyBBC LP 134M (1973)
Includes an extract from V-ITMA

ITMABBC Radio Collection double cassette ZBBC 1011 (1988)
Includes the Army, Navy, RAF and Royal Command broadcasts, with most of the music removed.

Share this:

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Related

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 at 10:11 AM and is filed under Radio. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.